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I have 2 episodes of Voltron Force on my On Demand in Chicago as well. I assume it's two-thirds of Thursday's 90 minute premiere. I'm not really sure what I think about it. The animation isn't very good, but, for what it is, the voice work isn't bad. It definitely seems like it's aimed at younger kids. What's weird is that it seems to be a sequel to the original series. One, it looks nothing like the original series and two, will kids even know anything about a 30 year old Japanese cartoon? I'm going to watch it Thursday before I make up my mind whether or not I'll keep watching it.

As I understand it this Voltron Force takes some elements from the original cartoon and story-wise generally takes place after the original cartoon but is really it's own animal and not intended to be a sequel.

For example, one of the kids is Allura's niece -- but the original show gives viewers the impression that Allura was an only child. Certainly if Allura had any married siblings the fleets of those planets would have rushed to Arus's aid when Zarkon's forces attacked (treaties and all).

To be honest I'm a bit disappointed -- I had hoped the new Voltron series would be more akin to the original show. Right now, my impression is that Voltron Force won't be the same calibre of show that Nickelodeon's earlier hit Avatar: The Last Air Bender was.

Especially after Genndy Tartakovsky & team delivered such a fantastic super-robot series in Sym-Bionic Titan. It's a real shame Cartoon Network pulled the plug on the show...

I have 2 episodes of Voltron Force on my On Demand in Chicago as well. I assume it's two-thirds of Thursday's 90 minute premiere. I'm not really sure what I think about it. The animation isn't very good, but, for what it is, the voice work isn't bad. It definitely seems like it's aimed at younger kids. What's weird is that it seems to be a sequel to the original series. One, it looks nothing like the original series and two, will kids even know anything about a 30 year old Japanese cartoon? I'm going to watch it Thursday before I make up my mind whether or not I'll keep watching it.

After reading your post here yesterday, I checked my on demand and at first I couldn't find the listing under nickelodeon, but then I did a search for Voltron and the episodes came up (I never did manage to find the actual listing, though).

I watched them both. At first I didn't think I was going to like it. The first couple of minutes REALLY put a 'bad taste in my mouth'.

I really HATE the opening theme music. The animation isn't doing much for me.... it's looks overly simplified. And the combination of 2D and 3D animation during the parts where the robots are in use just looks really akward.

Also, it appears that their uniforms are more or less based on that crappy 3D Voltron series that came out back during the 90s (with the lion shaped helmets, etc). So that leaves a little something to be desired.

And they are doing the thing where the clothes each character wears matches up with the lion that they pilot (just like the CGI toon did), which in all honesty I understand why they are doing it, but I'm so used to the color uniforms that each character wore back in the original series (and the only ones who's uniform color matched the lion that they piloted was Pidge and Hunk) that this bugs me a bit. But this is very much a nostalgia-rooted complaint.

That being said, I did start to get into it as I watched it (flaws aside). I do find the story interesting. I think it has some potential. So, I am looking forward to the full premiere (I set my DVR for it) to see how this opening movie pans out.

While this seems to be aimed at kids, I think it's kind of cool that it sort of picks up after the original series. I think enough basic backstory info is given that kids who aren't familiar with Voltron won't be lost or anything. And it's a cool way for parents who grew up with the original to bond with their kids.

I'm still not entirely sold on this... I don't know if I will tune in regularly yet, but so far it's not too bad. It could be worse. There have been far worse relaunches of old properties that I grew up with than this.

Originally Posted by Captain Marvel

As I understand it this Voltron Force takes some elements from the original cartoon and story-wise generally takes place after the original cartoon but is really it's own animal and not intended to be a sequel.

For example, one of the kids is Allura's niece -- but the original show gives viewers the impression that Allura was an only child. Certainly if Allura had any married siblings the fleets of those planets would have rushed to Arus's aid when Zarkon's forces attacked (treaties and all).

I do see where you are coming from here, but the 'mysterious niece or nephew with little or no previous reference of adult sibblings to the aunt/uncle' (or in some cases with the parents of the kids only conveniently being brought up upon the niece/nephew being introduced, even if it contradicts past statements) is nothing new in the world of television. It's been a staple of many shows (both live action and animated). So, that is something that I can easily overlook.

Heck, did Heuy, Dewey, and Louie even have parents? Donald and Scrooge are both uncles to them (Scrooge presumably a 'great uncle'), but no mention of their parents is ever brought up in Ducktales or any other media (to my knowledge) that they have been in.

Last edited by Dynamo of Eternia; June 16, 2011 at 11:52am.
Reason: Automerged Doublepost

It appears to be on Nick Toons from 10:30 to Midnight... so I might check it out. Though after the comments here I don't hold out much hope. I'm surprised there's still no word on the Mattel toys for the new series. I do think I might get some of the Classics figures for sure. Certainly the lions.

Well, each lion is supposed to have a pilot figure. Not sure if they'll branch out after that. I guess it'll depend on how the line does.

I just got done watching the new show and I have to say - I liked it! I was kind of surprised because my expectations were pretty low going in. The theme song is wretched, but I enjoyed that they incorporated the original cast with some new characters. There was good character-based humor, the seeds of an obvious ongoing storyline AND multiple villains to contend with to make it a little more complex.

I haven't watched an action cartoon in forever, but I think I'll keep checking this one out.

I just watched the trailer, and I can say I do NOT like the redesigned lions. Why the hell does yellow lion have a massively protuding jaw? Seriously?

And no original voice actors? Come on. Even the CG show had a bunch of originals. What are Neil Ross, BJ Ward, Jack Angel and Michael Bell doing these days? I know Lennie Weinrib died in 2006, RIP. Hell, I haven't seen Tim Curry doing anything lately LOL He could have returned as Lotor.

I am confused, the teaser art and concept images showed Zarkon and Hagar I thought

Originally Posted by Optimus Prime

And no original voice actors? Come on. Even the CG show had a bunch of originals. What are Neil Ross, BJ Ward, Jack Angel and Michael Bell doing these days? I know Lennie Weinrib died in 2006, RIP. Hell, I haven't seen Tim Curry doing anything lately LOL He could have returned as Lotor.

Probably to save money, however I have to take issue with what you said in regards to Tim Curry. He is super busy. He does a ton of voice over work, was on Broadway and recently has been getting back into TV acting with stints on CBS shows.

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I am confused, the teaser art and concept images showed Zarkon and Hagar I thought.

(Spoiler Warning if you haven't seen the new series premiere yet):

I'm not sure about Zarkon (they didn't mention him in the pilot... at least not that I noticed anyway), but Hagar is mentioned in the premiere. You actually kind of see her face briefly. Pidge is looking at some image on a screen and he says, "HAGAR?!" and to me is almost looked like a bunch of stars in space arranged to look like her face (I'm not sure if it was actually supposed to be stars in space, but that's just what it looked like to me).

And Lotor (apparently having previously died or something) is brought back to life with Hagar's blood apparently being a major important component in that happening. I'm assuming that Hagar is supposed to be dead or defeated or something, because other than that mysterious image that Pidge sees briefly, we never actually see her. They just mention her blood.

I saw a video online saying that this is the second show to be a sequel to the original Voltron. The other was the CGI show which I never saw. I guess it doesn't matter though since Voltron Force supposedly contradicts it.

How did the original show even end? Was Voltron given an ending? If so, is this a sequel to the Japanese version or the American version? If it's to the American version, where is Sven?

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Actully a lot of the plot of this new series is based off of the "Fleet of Doom" made for TV movie tthat featured both Lion and Vehicle Voltrons. In that Lotor was killed(sort of) and Hagar and Zarkon had a final seen together that pulled a "Sorpanos" on us. I recommend watching it on DVD it was pretty good.

I just hope they bring in Vehicle Voltron into the story or at least allude to it in a few stories since the Lion Force is now fighting the Drule Empire in this series instead of the Forces of Doom. Also they need to bring in Sven(sp?), Romelle, Bantor, and planet Pollocks. Hey for all we know Alluara's neice is probably her "cousin's" and the former Blue Lion's pilot's daughter. They also need to bring back Merla and Kossack at least for the villian.

Also we had a cameo(sort of) of King Alfour, or at least his tomb, in the third act.

Pidge is looking at some image on a screen and he says, "HAGAR?!" and to me is almost looked like a bunch of stars in space arranged to look like her face (I'm not sure if it was actually supposed to be stars in space, but that's just what it looked like to me).

And Lotor (apparently having previously died or something) is brought back to life with Hagar's blood apparently being a major important component in that happening. I'm assuming that Hagar is supposed to be dead or defeated or something, because other than that mysterious image that Pidge sees briefly, we never actually see her. They just mention her blood.

Lotor is also now being referred to as "King Lotor".

Yes, that was one of those parts that I thought was terribly confusing because it seems you'd have to have a handle on the old series to really appreciate it. I don't know Voltron very well as a storyline. So all of that just confused me. They didn't seem to explain it well when it was happening, but apparently some of Hagar's life force was used to bring Lotor back, so it does seem she's dead in some fashion.

Yes, that was one of those parts that I thought was terribly confusing because it seems you'd have to have a handle on the old series to really appreciate it. I don't know Voltron very well as a storyline. So all of that just confused me. They didn't seem to explain it well when it was happening, but apparently some of Hagar's life force was used to bring Lotor back, so it does seem she's dead in some fashion.

Yeah, that is one thing that I wish they had done is explain what happened to the villains.

I'm not super-familiar with the original Voltron canon either. I haven't watched most of the episodes since I was a kid. I have all of the DVDs (including the complete series of Lion Voltron, Vehicle Voltron, both releases of the Fleet of Doom movie, and the original Japanese Beast King Go Lion series that Lion Voltron was adapted from), but have yet to actually watch most of them. I did watch Fleet of Doom after buying it, but that was a couple/few years ago now, so I'd have to rewatch it to see the stuff that griffen112182 is talking about. (Though it would be cool if Vehicle Voltron made an appearance like griffen suggested).

All of that being said, outside of what possibly happened in Fleet of Doom, to my knowledge the villains were never 'permanently' defeated or killed in the original series.

So, apparently sometime between the original series and now, some major stuff went down.

Springboarding off of what Captain Marvel said, regardless of whether or not the original show and new show are supposed to have a directly connected canon, so far nothing significant has been said or done on the new series that (to my knowledge) necessarily contradicts anything from the original series. We just need the 'blanks' filled in as to what happened between the original series and now as far as the villains go.

where is everyone seeing this? I missed the premier and its not on my on demand! AHHHHHHHHH

The full premiere was on NickToons network (not the regular Nickelodeon network). I think they are rerunning it a few times, so you may want to check if you get that station and look for the next showing.

The On Demand thing was only for the first 2 episodes (so only the 1st 2 out of 3 parts of the premiere). I didn't actually see it listed under the Nickelodeon section (which is apparently where it is supposed to be as I didn't even see a NickToons network section anywhere, so either it's not there or it's buried quite well). But when I used the search feature in which you can use your remote to enter text to search for a title, I checked for 'Voltron' and the first two episodes came up.

I watched it Thursday night. It seems they played it at 7:30 and 10:30 my time. Using the Search function, it seems like tonight they are playing the first two episodes tonight, and then the newest episode will play at 7:30pm and 10:30pm every Thursday and 1:30am on Fridays.

It doesn't seem like they aren't going to show the full three-parter any time soon. The first episode is also available on iTunes.

Well, each lion is supposed to have a pilot figure. Not sure if they'll branch out after that. I guess it'll depend on how the line does.

I don't mean with the lions though, I mean individually. I am no buying anymore lions because I have Toynami's Masterpiece Voltron and do not need anything more. I want regular figures with multiple points of articulation. Hence why I am super excited for the SDCC figure that is coming out.

Can someone PM me the US number for Matty? I want to talk to someone who might has a clue of what is going on.